Headlight for motor-vehicles.



F R. FALKENSTEIN.

HEADLIGHT FOR MOTOR VEHICLES. APPLICATION FILED OCT. sums.

Patented Oct. 16, 1917.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

LQQQEZQQ F. R. FALKENSTEIN.

HEADLIGHT FOR MOTORVEHICL ES. APPLICATiQN man on. 31. 1916.

LMQQQQQ Patented Oct. 16,1917.

'2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 1 entrain smarts rarest @FMQE,

me a. FALKENSTEIN, or Brita n/roan MARYLAND.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knownthat I, FRED R. FALKnNs'rEIN,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain useful Improvements 1n Headlights for Motor-Vehicles,of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

turned either to the right or. to theleft in direct accordancerwith the movement of the steering apparatus. 1

Ordinarily, headlights are held rigid with respect'to the vehicleliodyj orframe so that in making sharp turns the driver is unable to see the direction in which thevehicle is steered from a straight path. It is thepurpose of my invention to cause the beam of light to be maintained at right angles to the wheel axles, so that in making a turn the beam will illuminate the path to be traveled by the wheels.

It is also the purpose of my invention to so mount the lamps on the frame or chassis that they will not be subjected to the vibration imparted to the wheels in traveling over inequalities in the road as would be the case should the lamps be mounted upon the wheel axles, or u on the s rin s etc.

A further object of my invention is to provide means whereby the actuating means for driving the lamps may be thrown out of operative position, as would be desirable in the day time when the lamps are not being used.

1n the drawings:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary plan view of a portion of a chassis, to which my invention is applied;

Fig. 2 is a side view of the front portion of the chassis or frame; and

Fig. ,3 is a detail view of the throw-out device for the lamp actuating mechanism.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 44 W of Fig. 3, looking in the direction of the which are mounted pinions 6 and 7, said pinions having upwardly projecting-stems, with angular ends 8and 9 to be received Specification of Letters Patent.

'tive racks.

HEADLIG T FOR MOTOR-VEHICLES. v

I aPatented oce. 1c, 1917;

- Application filed October 31, 1916. Serial'lNo. 128,766.

in sockets 10 of the 'lamps'll. The pinions.

and 1t meshing with said pinions andconnectedtogether by a link rod having knuckle conneections 16 and 17 with respec- Therefore, it will be obvious In order that the that any motion-imparted to one of the v pinions will be communicated to the other pinion, Motion (is imparted direct to the pinion 6 by a rack bar 18. which. receives its motion; from. a reach rod 19' in a guide 20 ,on the vehicle frame, said rod being actu-,

ated. by a rack 21 adapted to mesh with a pinion 22 on the shaft 23 receiving its mo- .tion from the usual steering mechanism, the

shaft-23 being preferably the ordinary shaft which actuates the steering arm 24 in the usual manner. It will be observed that the reach rod 19 has knuckle connections 25 and 26 with the racks 1S and 21, respectively. Above the rack 21 is a casing or housing 27 through which projects a rod 28 carrying a slotted block 29 which receives a T-head 30 on the rack 21. The rod 28 is provided with arcuate flanges 31 and 82 which form an arcuate guide or seat for the eccentric 33 provided with a handle 34. 7

Under operating conditions the rack 21 will travel in a substantially horizontal plane, but when it is desired to throw out the lamp operating mechanism the operator will grasp the handle and swing the eccentric a sufiicient distance, for example, in an arc of one hundred eighty degrees, and this will be effective in imparting a swinging motion to the rack 21, whereby the teeth of the rack 21 and the teeth of the pinion 22 will cease to mesh and any rotative movement imparted to the pinion 22 will not be imparted to the rack. WVhen, however. it is desired to bring the rack into mesh with the pinion'22 the eccentric will be reversed and the block 29 will force the teeth of the rack into engagement with the pinion. At the same time the block 29 will constitute a guide for said rack 21 to keep it in proper relative position. When the rack 21 and pinion 22 are in mesh any movement imparted to the steering shaft 23 will impart a like movement to the rack 21, the rod 19, the racks 18, 13 and 14. Therefore, any de' fiection of the wheels from a straight path loo will cause a similar deflection of the beam I and 18 -are-guided in the recessesor guides "nism' 'for disconnecting the rack '21 from the p'ni'on 22 it is obvious that other formsof "r easingmechanism may-doe employed if de- *sired. r

fHaving thus described my invention, "I cla irm'z f r 'vehicle franle, laterally swinging larri pson said?frame, a steering mechanism,

pinion on said steering meoha-ni-smQa T- shaped rack -bar' 'for'; engagement with the pinion; connections" between the ra'jckkbar and guide 'on'said rod slidably engaging the-=ec- ;-centr1oif;or the-raising and lowering of the rod on movement of said eccentric.

2. A vehicle .frame, laterally -SW Jngmg lamps on .sai d..r"rame, a steering mechanism, sa lfi'illiQIlrOIlzSiti-Cl steering mechanism; a T- -:shapedirackbar :afor engagement With 1,, the pinion, connections between ;tl1e rack har :a-nd :the lamps for actuating the same on emovement of the rack ban by: esaidi pin-ion, a

blockaslidahly engaging a the f'T zp ortion i' Of the rack :har, a 1 lifting rod pivoted to :ethe cblock a manuallyoperatedarcuate' shaped eccentric movably 1supported adjacentrtogthe srod' a guide ;on;asa-id; rod slidably :enga'ging theeccentrici for the raisingjanol lowering of --the rod on movement of saidiaeccentric, and

a housing on the frame for said rackbart llritestimony-whereof'Laffix my signature.

"FRED FAIgKENST-EIN.

"Copies oftlris patent majfi be obtained fbr five cents each} by: addressing {the F Gommissionerl of? Patents,

-' I :wa'shingtongmncfl 

